Learning New Ways of Being
by melniewn
Summary: Merle finds himself attracted to a Marian who proves to be his savior, and he becomes hers. The rating is for Dixon language and for potential smut in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first foray into TWD though I am a huge fan. This is Merle/OC other characters will come along later and it will be slightly AU.

Marian was surprised she'd survived as long as she had, she'd woken up and fallen asleep with the expectation that each day would be her last. She certainly hadn't expected to come across a large man with one hand. She studied him for a moment before she realized that he was indeed still alive, and his arm was seriously infected. She'd spent the last few days holed up in a clinic off the beaten path. She'd only left to replenish her food supply.

She made her way carefully over to him, and quietly said. "Hey, do you need some help?"

Merle opened his eyes at the sound of a voice. It wasn't a voice he was expecting; it was a sultry, female voice. "Ya should just leave me be."

Marian just couldn't leave a living man to rot, "Come on, I can help you fix that arm up. I got a safe place, and some supplies."

Merle looked her over carefully, she wasn't a beauty, but she wasn't bad – long red hair, and bright blue eyes, though she was a little on the heavy side. "Why ya willin to help a stranger? Don't you know I could hurt you woman?"

Marian tilted her head and looked over his large sweaty frame. "Yeah, you probably could, but for some reason I don't think you will. Come on big guy; let's get something for that arm before you become one of these zombies, alright?"

With a deep sigh, Merle looked her over again, "Why the fuck not, thing hurts like a fuckin bitch." He tried to stand and fell against the wall. The woman walked over to him and wrapped his good arm around her neck, when she pulled him up she took a moment to steady him and started walking down the alley he'd been sitting in. He couldn't believe he'd run out of fucking gas in the fucking suburbs. He'd tried to find another car, but his arm had started hurting so bad he'd apparently passed out.

The way the woman snuck around while practically carrying him impressed Merle though he'd never say that. He let her get him to the place she'd been staying. Once there he felt what little strength he had drain right out of him.

_This son-of-a-bitch is heavy_, Marian thought to herself. She could see he was trying to help, but his struggling breath and how heavily he leaned on her told her that he didn't have a lot left. She wasn't even sure how she'd gotten all the way to the clinic, but she had made it even though he'd passed out practically on the doorstep.

With much struggling Marian got him into a bed, dug around for a bit to gather supplies. She knew there were liquid antibiotics in one of the clinic rooms. She got an IV hung for him and thought about trying to get his clothes off to clean him up. Instead she decided to work on the man's stump. It looked like a seriously infected burn, and apparently the dead smell in the alley had covered the stench of the infection. She tried not to gag as she cleaned it and gave deep thanks that the man stayed asleep because she knew her abrading would make him scream.

After she finished cleaning and dressing the wound she settled into a corner with her gun and wished she had someone to talk to.

The next few days were strange, the man went in and out of consciousness often screaming or hollering for people named Daryl or Darlene; Marian wasn't sure if it was one or two people. She had taken his shirt off and gotten him somewhat clean, but the sheer number of scars on him made her wonder about taking him in. What in the hell was she thinking anyway.

Four days after she'd brought him into the clinic Merle woke up. It was early evening and he could see the sky from the open window tops. The bottom of the windows were boarded up, the room looked like some kind of hospital or clinic. He tried to remember how he'd gotten there when Marian walked back into the room with two bags full of shit.

"You're awake." And with that statement she walked over and held up a water bottle to his lips. Merle hadn't realized how thirsty he was until the cool liquid drained down his throat. She took it away before he'd had his fill. "Slowly, you haven't had anything much in your system in I don't know how long, but you gotta go easy or you'll get sick."

Merle leaned back and looked the woman up and down. "So sugar, you got me outta my shirt, how bout helping me with these pants too." He asked with a smirk.

He never expected the throaty, damn sexy laugh that came out of her, "Oh honey, if I started on you you'd pass out before it got good for either of us. I think perhaps you ought to wait till you are a little more healed before you start getting randy."

Laying his head back, he knew he was still not right. He hurt all over, not just the fucking stump on the end of his arm. But he wasn't dead, and that was something. Turning his head to watch the woman he cleared his throat, "so ah… I'm Merle, how long I been here?"

Marian turned towards him, leaning back against the counter where she had a small hibachi to cook on, "I'm Marian, and you've been in my care for a little over 4 days. You've been pretty much out of it too, did a lot of shouting when your fever went up, but the antibiotics seem to have done their job. Your fever broke last night. Now, I'm heating some broth up for you, and you aren't going to fuss at me about drinking it. I don't have any more nutrient rich saline to keep you from wasting away on me." With that she turned her back to him again.

Merle chuckled at her tone, but understood it would best for his survival if he just cooperated so he nodded.

That evening, as Marian curled up in the same corner she'd occupied since bringing Merle into her space; she was more exhausted then she'd been when Merle was unconscious. He was a giant pain in the ass: disrespectful bordering on mean, uncouth, and he never stopped talking. At least she found out that Daryl was his brother.

She'd spent weeks in silence and had grown used to it. She thanked the gods the pain killers had finally put him to sleep. She'd been told she was fat and stupid even as he thanked her for the broth, a broth she'd found and hoped to eat herself. Taking a deep breath she decided that as soon as he was healed he could get the fuck out of her life.

That, however, was simply not how things played out. As he healed he got antsy and wanted out. Marian told him the door wasn't locked but had to catch him the first day as he got dizzy three steps away from the bed. He did not take well to her catching him. After that he got even ruder; Marian thought he might be getting another infection, but it turned out he was detoxing or something. The next three weeks were the worst of her entire life. He called her every name in the book, what bothered her most was probably calling her a fat whore, but she got over that like everything else, by ignoring the pain it caused.

Marian knew she wasn't beautiful. She was once considered pleasantly plump she had curves in all the right places, but now it felt like any additional weight was a death sentence so she gave her patient most of the food keeping only enough to survive and hoped that maybe the zombie apocalypse would finally help her lose weight. She hoped her glasses survived forever though; she would be blind if something happened to them.

For some reason she simply could not let Merle Dixon die. So no matter how mean he was to her she gave him broth and what little food he could keep down, dressed his stump, and cooled him with wet rags when the fevers went up, covered him when he shook and even started sleeping next to him to keep him warm.

The first time she crawled into the bed with him he was nearly delirious and shivering so bad he was shaking the bed, he had tears streaming down his face and was begging for something. Marian couldn't stand it and crawled on to the bed, lay down with him and let him curl himself around her. The next day was better, but he only slept when she was lying next to him.

Merle woke up to his head on something soft, he thought about it and realized he was curled around Marian. He'd never been with a girl that had real meat on her bones, and Merle realized he kinda liked it – not that he'd ever tell her that. But she was soft and her hands were like fucking miracles. She'd soothed the burning fires from his withdrawal, and his nightmares. He thought he might have even hit her, but here she was calming him again.

He lay there taking account of his body. His arm and… stump didn't feel like he should cut more off anymore, and while he felt kinda shaky he realized he'd come through the other side. He'd never fully detoxed before, he'd come close, but had always failed in the past. He moved back enough to look at the woman next to him. Even in her sleep she looked exhausted. The last few weeks were been a blur to him, but she was always there, always taking whatever shit he dished out and making him feel better. Now he felt like shit, how in holy hell was he supposed to thank her. He had no fucking idea.

He slowly pulled himself up and started poking around the small room they'd been holed up in. From the looks of it, they were getting pretty low on everything. He walked over to the windows and looked through a crack, yep it was still the fucking outskirts of Atlanta, and it was still fuckin crawling with geeks.

Marian awoke about an hour later to the smell of coffee. She sat up quickly confused, where was Merle? Who was making coffee? She turned to the small table and started searching for her glasses when a gruff, but coherent voice asked, "Want me to pour you summa this here coffee?" She nodded but didn't answer till she discovered her glasses on the floor by the table. She cleaned them carefully, putting them on and running her fingers through her unruly long hair.

When Marian turned she was surprised, Merle looked a little worse for wear, but better than he ever had. She'd seen his scars, and his hard, sexy, she had to admit to herself, body, but she'd never seen his eyes alight with any kind of clear head. She smiled as he handed her a full cup of coffee. She sat back on the bed and watched him pour himself what must have been his second cup.

Merle sat down in one of the two office chairs in the room. He looked up at the red-head who had saved his ass twice now. "I don't know… I… uh… "

Marian chuckled, "You are welcome for whatever it is Merle."

His head shot up and he stared at her, how the fuck did she know what he was gonna say? "I guess you'll want me to get outta your hair here sometime soon now that I ain't some kinda danger."

Marian shook her head and set her coffee cup down, "Honey, I suspect you'll always be a danger."

He tilted his head, took another sip of coffee, and said, "well alright then. Looks like you're getting kinda low on everything."

She interrupted, "Yeah, there was this hard-headed redneck needed caring for. Haven't had much time for shopping." She ended her comment by settling into an indian style position on the bed and finished her coffee.

The two continued to be awkward around each other for the rest of the morning, but Merle finally fell asleep, after she badgered him into admitting that he wasn't 100% yet. For some reason the idea of this man leaving left Marian cold inside. This was stupid she knew nothing about him besides his foul mouth, his nightmares, and his pain. Somehow it was enough to catch her and tie her to him.

A few hours later Merle woke up to the sound of humming and the smell of something like chicken soup. He pulled himself into a sitting position and ran the fingers of his good hand through his hair. He found himself staring at her ass and hips; it was a fine looking ass, and well those hips were the kind his grand-dad had called baby carrying hips. What the fuck, he was Merle fucking Dixon and here he was thinking about hips and ass of a fat chick when the world was ending. What the hell had gotten into him?

Review Please? I'm a little nervous about this so let me know if i should continue...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: First my sincerest apologies for the tardiness of this update. My life seems intent upon getting in the way of my writing. I do hope to get some up faster in the next week. Other characters will be coming into play in a few chapters, Daryl will certainly be there, and probably some of the others - I am not quite there yet... and with no further ado...

Ch. 2

Marian was hiding behind a dumpster at the end of the alley she needed to get down, having been pinned there for about a half hour now. She had bags and didn't want to make the noise the couple of shots would give, no ringing the dinner bell. She stood up, and started making her way towards the dead with a pipe in her hands. Suddenly, the door of her building flew open and there was Merle Dixon taking down the three zombies who'd been in her way.

She stopped and stared at him as he rifled through the clothes of the dead pulling out a knife, a pack of cigarettes, and a zippo lighter all of which he pocketed. He stood up and looked at her, "I woke up and you were gone."

She limped back to the bags she had, and wondered why it was that she couldn't catch a break. She'd had to run to avoid both the dead and living and fell hard, now her hip and knee ached. Grabbing the bags she stood up and limped back to the door Merle was now standing in and holding open. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be gone as long as I was." She admitted tiredly.

Merle grabbed the bags out of her hands and let her go up the stairs while he put the lock back on the door. He followed her up the stairs watching the swing of her hips and decided he needed a good fuck. To keep his mind off his hardening dick he asked, "so what kept ya?"

Marian looked back at Merle, she shrugged trying to decide how much he needed to know and sighed, "The dead and the living. There's a group in the area I don't have anything to do with. I've seen them grab women off the street; they are never gentle so I just prefer to avoid them. Two of their guys came in to the store just before I got out. I kinda went into hiding cause I left my gods damned knife here in case you needed it. I didn't know if I could take them both so I just hid. When I got back to the alley there were dead in front of the door, had to wait till there were few enough for me to handle."

Merle noticed her hands were shaking a little as she explained while emptying the bags. She'd been more shaken up by the encounters than she was letting on. When she finished putting everything away she went to the darkest corner of the darkening room and slid down into the corner. Quietly she said, "I'll fix us something to eat in a bit, I just…need a few."

Tilting his head, Merle said, "come'ere." He held out his hand to her. She stared at the hand for a moment and figured what the hell. He hadn't said another word or dropped his hand so she came close to him and he pulled her into his side. "Now you wanna tell Old Merle what's got you shook up? You tell it like you run into those men before; what'd they do?" He pulled Marian further into his side and stretched back on the bed pulling her into him so her face was on his chest.

Marian furiously wiped the tears away and thought she was being stupid. "I'm really just being silly. I promise. I heard them talking about a woman I used to know… they were talking about her like she was a whore, and maybe she is now, but she was a good, kind, young woman and it sounds like they raped her over and over and I couldn't get away from their talk. See it's silly."

Merle took a deep breath and rubbed the woman's back, he was no good at comforting people, but he figured it was worth a try for all this lady had done for him. He liked how she felt against him, soft and warm. In a soft, almost gentle voice he replied to her, "I don't much cotton to men who hurt women. Ain't never taken nothing wasn't freely given and think men who do ought to be put down like the dogs they are. You're safe with me, and don't ever fuckin leave without your knife again. I got one a my own." He looked down at Marian and asked, "Got me Woman?"

Marian looked up at Merle and was startled by how close he was, she could see just how blue his eyes were, she whispered, "gotcha." She never could figure out why did what she did, but she closed the distance between them and kissed him softly. He made a soft growling noise and responded with more heat than she ever would have expected.

He kissed her like he was going to crawl into her mouth, exploring every inch and holy mackerel could this man kiss. Marian couldn't prevent the moan from escaping her lips as she was kissed more thoroughly than ever before in her life. She felt Merle's arm tighten around her and she felt his hand leave her back and move down to her ass, causing her to moan again as an unfamiliar heat flooded her system.

Merle wasn't expecting the gentle kiss she laid on his lips or his absolute need to finish it. She wasn't the type of girl he'd ever been interested in, she was too fuckin smart, and a little curvier than he had generally liked, but he was rethinking all of that as he kissed her. She responded like no woman in his experience, she was moaning and squirming from just his kiss, and he wondered what she'd think of his dick.

When he pulled back from the kiss her eyes were glassy and instead of relaxing she started kissing his neck, "Damn missy, you want a piece of Merle? Well don't ever think I don't want to please a lady." With that he pulled her face back to his and started kissing her again. He flipped them around so he was more on top of her than the reverse and went right for her breasts. He massaged first one then the other as he kept kissing her. After a few minutes he felt her hips start to move like she wanted more, so he broke away from her lips and started kissing her neck, his hand moving down her belly to the waistband of her pants. He looked up at her, "you sure about this?" And immediately he wondered what the fuck had gotten into him, she was squirmin' like she was fuckin sure.

Marian didn't trust her voice, and she didn't trust much else except whatever Merle was doing to her was what she wanted. She wanted more of his hand, and damn what must he have been like with two of them. Honestly, she wasn't even sure what she wanted except she didn't want him to stop. So instead of saying anything she nodded and kissed the side of his neck.

Merle started pulling her shirt up when he felt her back off. He looked down at her and saw tears in her eyes. Fuck… what had he done wrong? He had no fuckin clue; she'd been writhing and moaning till he started to take clothes off. He moved his hand from under the shirt and asked gruffly, "what's the problem, you know we can't finish this with clothes on, right?"

Marian shook her head and wiped her eyes. "I…I'm sorry Merle. I just… You don't wanna see me without clothes on. I ain't real pretty, I'm older than I look, and I have more than a few extra pounds on me. I just… fuck I don't know." Marian all but threw herself off the side of the bed and went back to her corner. Sorry, just sorry. I'll get up and cook in a sec."

Merle did not understand what this woman's fucking problem was. He got up and went to the bathroom and slammed the door. Marian realized she must have left him in a terrible state. She didn't want him to think she was a cock tease. She hated women like that. If you work a guy up he's yours to finish. So she took a deep breath and stood up. Pulling her courage around her, she walked to the bathroom door and knocked lightly. "Merle?"

"The fuck you want?" Came his gruff answer.

"To a… talk… to you." Marian stuttered out.

He unexpectedly pulled the door open, his pants were open and the largest penis she had ever seen was hard and ready for action. She stared for a second before he cleared his throat. "Thought you were done."

She shook her head, and with a deep breath she dropped to her knees and took his cock in her hand, then licked the tip.

"Holy fuck." Merle looked down at the woman on her knees. He almost told her she didn't have to suck him off, he was a big boy and could rub one off. He knew he shouldn't have started with her, but the urge to be a gentleman left as soon as she took him into her mouth.

She started pretty tentatively, but found she enjoyed what she was doing so licked down the length and back up before taking him into her mouth to see how much she could handle. She kept her hand pretty high up cause man he was huge. Continuing her up and down motions with her hand she took the head of him in and sucked like she was taking a stiff hit off of a tight joint. He grunted and exclaimed, "Fuck!" and exploded into her mouth. She did everything she could not to gag as her mouth was flooded, she swallowed and cleaned him up before standing up and limping back to the makeshift kitchen without a word.

Merle remained in the bathroom door stunned.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ch. 3

A/N: _Once again sorry for the delay; I am getting through it as quick as I can, and sometimes my muse is a bitch. I would really like to know what you think... this chapter gets the two of them moving outside of Atlanta, and on the search for Daryl and the group._

After eating dinner, Marian curled up on her side, in the corner, and tried to sleep. Merle had no idea what to do; he'd never been in a situation like this before. He actually liked this chick and he felt like he fucked up somehow, then he got pissed at himself for caring. What had he turned into some kind of pussy? He walked out of their room into the hallway and paced for a while.

Christ, what the fuck had just happened? He was all into things and then she spazzed out. Did he give a fuck if she was a big girl? Not really, he was kind of getting into having someplace soft to lay his head, and now she'd gone back to her god damned corner like they hadn't been sharing the fucking bed for days now. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like maybe he should just hightail it the fuck out of there; maybe he'd go looking for Daryl.

He wished he had a hit of something, or at least a goddamned bottle of whiskey. He stood up and decided he was gonna to look for what trouble he could get into. Instead of walking back into the room he was sharing with Marian he walked right out the back doors she'd drug him through weeks before. It was late, and he knew he shouldn't be out, but he couldn't stay cooped up with that crazy bitch any longer.

Merle knew he wasn't back at full strength, but figured he could still sneak; he had his knife if he ran into geeks. He walked out onto the street and realized he knew exactly where he was. It was considered a bad part of Atlanta, but there was a liquor store about a block from where he was standing. He didn't see any geeks and decided if he ran, perhaps he could get in an out without any trouble.

He took off at a dead run, saw the store which had a busted front window and made a beeline for it. He got into the store, and bent over trying to catch his breath. His arm hurt like fuck; damn he needed to get back into real fighting shape. He'd been out of the joint just long enough to lose some of the stamina he'd gotten from working out each day. When he stood up and looked around, the place had been pretty well cleaned out, but there was a door to what he figured was the storage area – he kicked the door open and nearly gagged at the smell.

Putting his back to the door he leaned back opening it up while leaving his hand free to use his knife if necessary. He saw two bodies on the floor one holding a gun, and both shot in the head. He shook his head, dumb fuckers opted out. He figured at least they did it right – couldn't come back as geeks if ya got shot in the head. Looking away from the idiots on the floor he noted a whole unopened box of Jack Daniels as well as a couple of bottles of rum. Rummaging through the rest of the office he found a shoulder bag and dumped the contents on the floor scoring a baggie of pot and a halfway decent little bowl. He filled it up with a few choice bottles. When he turned to head back to the clinic he noticed there were a few geeks roaming just outside the broken window. They hadn't noticed him yet so he moved back into the store room and closed the door.

Merle took a swig off one of the bottles, but decided he should have his wits about him to get back - it was dark and the geeks tended to be bigger pains in the ass after dark. He didn't really want to spend the whole night out, but maybe the girl would have calmed down if he just didn't go back. Hell he didn't really have to go back at all; he'd get along better on his own anyway. So he leaned against the door and smoked a little. He felt better than he had since that fucking cop had locked him on that roof. Well, maybe the blow job was almost as good.

God damn he thought to himself, I ain't goin back so I should just count myself lucky I got a damn blow job at all. Ain't needin no woman to fuck up his world, she should just be fuckin thankful he didn't steal her shit. That made him giggle a little and he realized he needed to be kinda quiet case the dead were in the store, aside from the dead fucks in the room with him. Least the smoke made the room smell less bad.

Marian woke up in the middle of the night and realized Merle had never returned. Perhaps she shouldn't have done what she did. Was she bad at it? She muttered to herself, "fuck, why am I wondering shit like that. I don't need some junkie here anyway." She crawled up on to the gurney she'd been sharing with Merle and buried her face in the pillow. It still smelled like him, and she let it comfort her back into sleep.

The next morning she awoke alone and told herself it was stupid to cry about it, and she really tried not to. She spent the morning cleaning the clinic room up; she even went so far as making the bed. She cleared her corner, and decided if he came back he could sleep on the damn floor, not her. By early afternoon she was tried to tell herself she didn't care if he ever came back, no matter how much she knew it wasn't true, she figured she could lie to herself till she believed it.

It was mid-afternoon when she heard the doors to the clinic being rattled. Stilling herself to listen she realized quickly that it couldn't have been Merle unless he brought friends. Hearing boots in plural come up the stairs terrified her. So she pulled her knife, grabbed her gun and went into the bathroom. She pulled herself into the small closet in there and worked to slow her breathing. Before long she heard the door to her room being kicked open.

Merle woke up in a kind of panic. He didn't know what was wrong only that he had to get the fuck out of that store. He was surprised at the lack of hangover considering he'd polished off at least one bottle of Jack and had found and snagged a bottle of Southern Comfort. If he happened to find Daryl he might even share. He opened the door and saw no geeks so he snuck out and once on the street he started heading towards the clinic. When he turned the corner to the alley the clinic back door was on his blood ran cold

Standing in front of the door to the clinic was a guy with a rifle. He knew the guy couldn't be alone and he didn't know what he was facing. The panic he felt made his throat feel closed. Fuck, he'd left the woman who saved his fuckin life alone in the god damned apocalypse. Well hell, he'd been spoiling for a fight so why not start one. He knew he smelled like hell and whiskey, so acting stoned out of his mind was no big stretch. He shoved the stump into the bag so it looked like he was holding on to something and made sure the gun was locked, loaded and easily reachable.

Merle took a deep breath and stumbled out in front of the guy with a big goofy smile on his face. "Hey man! You alive or what?" He knew being loud would bring the dead around so he made as much noise as he could stumbling towards the door, he kicked a can and knocked over some other piece of trash.

The man at the door ran towards him and hissed, "Shut the fuck up you stupid son of a bitch."

Laughing both inside and out, Merle was grinning because it was easy to see that this guy was in no way trained, or really any good at his job; he'd left the door unattended and rushed a stranger not knowing what the stranger was capable of. Merle pistol whipped him, kicked him in the ribs a few times, twice in the head and left him for the stinking corpses which were now coming up behind them. Hurrying to the door he slipped inside and started up the stairs. He could take these fucks out one handed and leave the fuckers for dead.

Marian held her breath hoping they'd take her stuff and not look any further. But luck was not with her as a guy kicked open the bathroom door. The light switch was tried and she thought he must be stupid to think there was electricity. Hell the fact that the water still ran was a damn miracle. She tried to think of anything to keep her mind from the fear and panic of this stranger.

Suddenly the closet she was in was opened and a light was shined directly into her eyes disorienting her. "Well, well, what do we have here?" He grabbed for her and she swung her knife slicing his arm open.

"Don't touch me." She snarled at him, holding her knife in front of her.

"You fuckin bitch." The man was huge, he knocked her arm against the doorjamb and punched her in the face. The blow was hard enough to knock her head against the shelves.

Having no other recourse since the gun she was carrying had no ammunition she gritted her teeth and tried to run for the door. She only got a couple of feet before the man grabbed her by the hair and kicked her in the abdomen. When she fell he kicked her in the side a couple of times for good measure then dragged her out into the other room by her hair.

Marian struggled to hold onto consciousness as the man started talking to someone else in the room, another guy. Suddenly she was yanked up and pushed onto the bed. She kicked and landed a solid blow to one guy's nuts and attempted to get the other guy when he cocked his gun and put it in her face. "Now then, you are gonna simmer the fuck down missy. You are going to give us whatever we want, and if you are really lucky we'll take you with us when we're done fucking you. Ain't seen a live woman in a bit now and we got needs."

Creeping up the stairs Merle heard one person in the first room and heard talking in the room he'd been sharing with the woman. Silently he moved up behind the asshole putting shit in his bag, he pulled his knife and shoved it against the guys throat. "You and me are gonna walk down the hall to your friends, and we're gonna have ourselves a little talk. This here is my place and I don't take kindly to looters." He pulled the guys arm behind him and yanked either dislocating or breaking it, Merle didn't much care which. Returning his knife to the boy's throat he started walking down the hall.

When he got to their room his rage took over. One guy had Marian's hands pinned above her head and the other was trying to strip her. She was squirming enough that he was having trouble. Good girl Merle thought and cleared his throat. "I think you boys ought to move the fuck away from my woman or I'm gonna slit this fuckers throat and then I'm gonna kill you both.

The one trying to strip her turned and looked Merle and his hostage. "Now why would we do that? You ought to know a man's got needs, and this fat whore will suit me just fine. Why don't you just be a good boy and maybe we'll let you both live." Then he reached up and grabbed one of her tits squeezing hard enough to make her cry out. She rolled her head to try getting away from them and Merle saw the beating she must have taken on her face.

That pissed him off even more so he shoved his knife up into the chin of the guy he'd brought with him, yanked it out and threw it at the one holding Marian's hands down. He'd have congratulated himself on his accuracy as he fell with Merle's knife lodged in his eye. Then he was rushing the fucker who was still ripping at the girl's clothes.

With her hands now free Marian sat up and punched the third man in the mouth. It made her hand hurt and she whimpered a little as he flew away from her when Merle barreled into him. She saw her one handed savior pull the man's knife from his boot and ram it into his eye after the two pummeled each other for a moment.

When Merle caught his breath he looked around at the mess the room was in and then looked at Marian. "We best be getting ourselves someplace else to stay." He pulled himself off the floor and realized she hadn't moved or stopped staring at him. He expected to see fear in her eyes, or shock at the very least, what he didn't expect was the tears silently streaming down her rapidly bruising face or the look in her eye. He wasn't quite sure what the look was, but didn't think they should take the time to analyze it. "Come on, get your shit; we need to get out of here. I don't suspect these assholes were alone, and I don't really want to meet their friends."

Marian got of the bed and quietly cried out as her side felt like it was going to cave in. She didn't want to be a burden to Merle so she kept her mouth shut, gritted her teeth and gathered what she thought they'd need as well as considering what she could carry. It took them no more than about 15 minutes to gather everything up and get out of the building. Merle took her down as many back alleys as he could find, ignoring everything but the knowledge that she was behind him, and he needed a place for them to crash for the night.

After an hour they found themselves in a residential area. There were surprisingly few of the monsters, but a lot of houses, and more than a few cars. Merle grabbed her hand and pulled her to a house that had an old, but nice truck in the drive. He continued pulling her along as he went to check the house. They found it empty and when they'd done a thorough search he turned to her, "we can bed down here for the night." He waited for her to respond, but instead caught her when she passed out.

Please let me know what you think? I would LOVE more reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: This one is a little shorter, but I wanted to get it out. Their first afternoon/evening at the suburban house. Hope you like it.

"Fuck!" Merle picked up the now unconscious woman. "Don't know what she was bitchin about, she ain't that fuckin big. When his hand curled under her side she whimpered which caught his attention. He laid her down on the sofa and pulled up her shirt. Her side and abdomen were a deep red, and were turning purple.

"Well fuck darling, you must have been in some kind of fuckin pain that whole walk. Least ya didn't bitch or whine. Tough ain'tcha." He reached up and rubbed the back of his fingers across her uninjured cheek, while talking to an unconscious Marian. When the gruff man realized what he'd done he jerked his hand away and slid down on to the floor in front of the couch. He rubbed his arm for a few minutes then jumped up as if he'd been bitten. He started pacing and looking through the house, almost tossing the place.

There was some useful shit, a complete first aid kit, some clothes that would probably fit him, and the place seemed pretty clean. He walked into the kitchen and pulled open the cupboards, finding a box of crackers that he was sure were going to be stale, two cans of soup, a bag of rice, and a couple of cans of beans. As far as he could tell it was a damn feast. He tried turning on the stove which didn't work, and the water which did. "Well god damn, I think we can get the stink off ourselves." He walked back into the front room and looked down at the woman who had saved his ass for a moment then turned and walked into the bathroom. He turned on the shower and stripped thinking about whether or not they were even, and if it mattered.

Sure he'd saved her ass today, but did it make up for healing his arm and putting up with him detoxing? He felt better than he had in years and he knew it was her doing. He was finally clean, he'd tried before but had never made it and somehow the firecracker in the other room had done it. Sure he was fuckin out of it most of the time, but he also knew he was a right bastard when he was detoxing. He briefly wondered if he'd hit her during those days then decided he didn't really give a fuck, if she'd had a real problem she'd have told him. She wasn't meek and mild that was for sure.

After an invigoratingly cold shower he found an old towel that smelled clean, dried himself and wrapped it around his waist. He walked out into the front room where he'd left the packs with clean clothes, he snagged a pair of cargo pants and saw that Marian was not only awake but standing in front of a mirror without her shirt on. She must have been checking the damage from earlier, but Merle couldn't help but stare at the fine rack she had. He got hard almost instantly and had to stop himself from coming up behind her and fondling them, but his dick was sure for the idea.

After a moment, Marian noticed him standing behind her and paled; she put her arms up but seemed as interested in hiding the bruises as she was her tits. Just as she went to grab her shirt, Merle reached down and snagged it. With a slightly wolfish grin he said, "Ain't got no cause to cover up a nice set of titties like yours, specially when I oughta see how bad you got hurt."

Marian turned bright red, "I…uh…if you think you should check, I'm pretty… pretty sure there's something broken and I… you really don't think I'm…" and suddenly her voice dropped to almost non-existent as she said, "fat?"

Merle stared at her like she was stupid, "fuck no. You ain't no skin and bones skank, but ya ain't gross or nothin, and besides you got a fine rack worth lookin at all damn day. And ya make a nice pillow, not all bony and shit. Now sit the fuck down and stop asking dumb fuckin questions. I'm gonna have to see if or how many ribs ya got fucked up."

Marian gingerly sat back down on the couch and leaned back. She closed her eyes and willed the tears behind them not to spill till at least he started probing the broken ribs. He sat down to her side but facing her and reached out to put fingers on her side. He walked them down her side. As soon as he started she let the tears go, knowing she could put it down to pain and not feelings. "Well woman, ya got at least two broke, and probably a third that's cracked. I need to find something to bind you up with or ya gonna get fucked up even more." She nodded at him, trying to compose herself before speaking.

Wiping her eyes she said, "Sorry for the waterworks Merle, I guess I can be kind of a girl sometimes."

Merle shook his head at the woman. He knew something he'd said had made her cry, not that he had one damn clue what it was, and it surprised him that she was trying to spare him her probably reasonable tears. In an effort to continue the sort of lie she started he said, "Nah, I seen big fuckers in prison cry like little girls for less shit than you got going on. Sit tight I found a first aid kit and I might be able to find something to bind ya up with. You'll be able ta move around a hell of a lot better that way. We can maybe stay here a day or two, but I ain't stickin around longer than that, we're still too close to the fuckin city here." With those words he left the room to go looking for something to bind her ribs with. If he didn't she'd be down a hell of a lot longer than a day or two and even so it was probably pushing it.

As he thought through all of this he found a couple of big ace wraps and figured they'd have to do, and maybe they could take is slow and get outside the city before the end of the week, but she probably shouldn't push it.

He stopped dead in his tracks as he realized he had no intention of leaving her behind anymore. He shook his head and muttered, "now when the fuck did that happen, and why didn't I notice. Fuck." He knew it should come as such a big damn surprise, he knew he kinda liked her, she didn't talk too much, she was smart, tough, and damn hot now that he'd seen and felt her body properly. But to just figure she'd be with him was, well he didn't know what to think. After a moment he decided not to dwell on it, he wanted her around, so he was gonna keep her around. Maybe, if he was real lucky and a little smooth he'd get to spend more time with her fondling the breasts he liked so well.

When he got back in the living room he saw Marian asleep sitting up on the couch; her shirt was still in her hand like she'd been about to put it back on. Hell, Merle thought, maybe he could just get her to walk around without nothing on. The thought made him get hard and grin. He sat down next to her and leaned his head back, he hadn't realized how tired he was. They were safe enough at the moment, he'd checked all the doors, and covered the windows before he showered so he could close his eyes for a second. As tired as he was he just couldn't get comfortable especially knowing there were perfectly good beds upstairs.

After thinking on it for minute or so he nudged Marian and said, "let's get upstairs, we can get some shut eye and figure out our next step." She nodded like she was still mostly asleep which made Merle chuckle. Putting his hand on her lower back he ushered her up the stairs and into the room with the nice big double bed. He got her to sit on the edge of the bed and he wrapped up her torso to just below her breasts. Trying to make sure that it was tight enough to give her a bit of relief, but loose enough that he didn't hurt her. She let him wrap her up with no problem then he got her to lay down. He took off her shoes and pulled off the pants she had on, surprisingly with her sleepy help, probably because the pants were with dirt and walker muck. He got her under the covers and she was instantly sound asleep again

He stared at her for a moment, then said, "fuck it, ain't like we didn't sleep together before." With a smirk at the thought of rubbing naked up against her, he stripped off the pants he'd put on and slid under the covers. He noticed the light beginning to fade outside and again without much thought on the matter he rolled onto his side and pulled his woman in close to him curling himself around her. He fell into a deep and amazingly peaceful sleep holding on to her.

Please read and review, your thoughts keep my muse working.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Here's the next update for you cause I have a really busy week coming up and I'm not sure how much writing I'll have time to get done. Warning: This is a smut filled chapter - so if you don't like that skip to the end. Though it's been coming so I hope I did it justice.

Ch. 5

Marian woke up feeling very sore, but warm and safe. She was lying on her uninjured side and realized that Merle was curled around her. After about a second she also realized they were both naked and he was quite happy to be there. He had his stumped arm around her belly and had his hand on her breast gently squeezing and massaging it, apparently in his sleep. It felt so good that she moaned a little and squirmed her ass back into him.

As sore as her ribs were she still couldn't help but wiggle. Her breasts had never seemed all that sensitive before, but Merle's rough hand created a link between the mound he was squeezing and her core. Marian tried to still herself and think; it was very difficult since the large masculine hand on her body hadn't stopped moving. He'd apparently seen her naked, even said yesterday that he didn't think she was fat. She wasn't sure she believed that; the women around guys like him were always skinny, big breasted girls who wore little skimpy get ups. But he said he didn't mind how she looked, and it's not like there were a host of men around. She didn't remember the last time she'd had sex, it had been several years and the man behind her could exude sexiness when he was inclined to. Would it complicate things? Maybe. Did she care? Not at the moment, but she probably would later. If they fucked would he leave her behind? Well maybe not if she was good, but she didn't think she was up to sexual acrobatics.

Suddenly Merle pinched her nipple which caused her to whimper and squirm again. Then his raspy voice was in her ear, "if you keep that up you're gonna find something long and hard deep inside of ya." His hand slid carefully down her torso and nestled into the curls at her apex causing her to quietly moan his name and squirm her ass against him harder. His other arm tightened around her belly pulling her a bit more against him while leaving enough room for her hips to move of their own free will. All thoughts of stopping this freight train flew out of her head as he stroked a finger down her lips and slid it inside to her soaking wet center, and then he stroked her hard nub causing her to rub back even more.

"Damn baby, you are fucking hot this morning". He started to kiss and lick the back of her neck and up to her ear, rubbing his dick up and down her ass while he rubbed her till she was whimpering his name. Hearing his name on her lips for a second time broke what little self-control he was feeling at the moment – so while keeping his fingers dancing on her clit he pulled back, adjusted himself and started to push into her. "Fuck woman, you're tight" he rasped into her ear. With one solid thrust he pushed all the way in and stopped both to let her adjust and to calm himself down so he didn't go off like a fucking teenager.

Marian had never felt so full in her entire life. It had hurt when he plunged into her, but it was the edge of pain that linked to the edge of pleasure. She needed him to move, to do something so she tried moving her hips. Merle tightened his arm around her pulling her tighter against him which slid him deeper inside of her causing another moan from both of them. Merle nipped her earlobe and spoke into her ear, "ya gotta give me a minute girly, you're tight as a fuckin virgin." Marian whimpered and nodded. After a moment he felt like he could maybe move without going off instantly. He started by moving his hips in short almost gentle thrusts. A few minutes of that had them both panting and wanting more so he lifted her leg giving himself a little more room to move. He started a smoother, deeper rhythm with longer strokes as he kissed and sucked on her neck; he knew he was marking her as his and enjoyed the noises he was making her give off.

"Oh god Merle, oh god, so good!" Marian groaned and swiveled her hips a little not realizing that if she weren't getting so much pleasure the movement would probably hurt. For his part, Merle didn't think he'd ever felt anything like what he was getting from this woman. His cock was encased in the tightest, hottest velvet glove he'd ever felt. Something about holding her to him as he sunk into her over and over was more than just fucking, she smelled, tasted and felt like he'd come home. With no warning her core was squeezing and releasing him as she spilled over the edge. The tightening of her was the last straw for his tightly wound willpower and he started thrusting with everything he had.

Marian felt like she was having an out of body experience. Never had she come so hard, so completely, she felt like her body had flown apart and then he was going harder and deeper than before. She had no time to come down as another orgasm spilled over her at his rough hard thrusts. This second orgasm was so intense it caused Merle to finish coming deep inside of her causing yet a third orgasm for the woman. Afterwards they laid there trying to catch their breath - Merle staying buried deep inside of her and they both fell asleep from the intensity of it all, neither saying a word to each other.

Several hours later Merle woke up to find his dick hard again and still buried in Marian's cleft. He rested his forehead on her shoulder not sure if he should wake her or just do what his body wanted. He quickly decided to go with the later. She'd obviously enjoyed their earlier fucking so he figured he'd just give her a second dose of ol' Merle. With that he started moving his hips in the slow short movements they'd started with earlier.

The clenching of her body around Merle's thrusts brought Marian back to consciousness, she thought as she'd fallen asleep that when she woke again she was going to be hurting bad; instead she was on the edge of hazy pleasure as the apparent sex god behind her thrust in and out again. Marian whimpered out his name as an orgasm poured over her. Behind her Merle growled but didn't stop or slow down. Marian didn't know if it was possible to die of pleasure but if it was she was sure this man was going to cause it.

Close to an hour and more than a few orgasms later the two were panting as Merle finally pulled himself from her hot core. He rolled over onto his back and sighed with a deep satiation that he hadn't felt outside of drugs in a very long time, or maybe ever. With some effort on her part, Marian managed to get onto her back. "Endorphins are fucking amazing."

Merle opened his eyes and stared at her for a minute, and with a gruff laugh he said, "what in the hell are you talkin about?"

Marian chuckled then winced as her ribs were starting to hurt pretty bad now. "Endorphins Merle, those chemicals in our brain that produce a natural high, best painkillers gods ever created. Orgasms flood our bodies with them, it's why my ribs just started to hurt now when they didn't before." She reached down and started to pull the sheet up and over her body.

With an arched eyebrow Merle grabbed the sheet away and threw it on the floor. "We been fuckin all morning, don't cover that sweet ass, I wanna keep lookin at it." Marian blushed bright red at his words. The blush caused Merle to burst out laughing. "God damn woman, after all that we just did you're really blushin over my saying I want to look at your ass? You're fuckin crazy. If I thought I wouldn't have to shoot every livin person we ran into I'd just keep your ass naked."

Marian shook her head and managed to get sitting up without whimpering, but she'd bitten her bottom lip so hard she tasted blood. "You are nuts Merle, or ye need glasses or something... but thanks I think." After watching her for a moment, Merle decided maybe she had the right idea he was fucking hungry. He stood and pulled his pants on, but when he looked over his shoulder he saw she hadn't moved. "S'wrong?"

Marian turned her head to look at him, "I'd like a shower I think… and well think there's any clothes here that'll fit me? I kinda left all my clothes back in the city, just grabbed food, water, and weapons. The clothes I had on before are disgusting."

He nodded, "I'll look for some clothes for ya, bathroom's next room down." He walked out of the room with a swagger in his walk, feeling like a king for making her come so much and anyway he hadn't ever had sex that fuckin good. He found some girls clothes in one of the bedroom, so he brought jeans, a tank top, and a t-shirt in the room and dropped them on the bed.

Marian climbed gingerly in the shower. Now that the endorphins had worn off she was hurting from head to toe. Her center hurt in a good way, but it still hurt and that was dwarfed by the pain from her ribs. She'd had to take the wrap off and saw that her whole side was a riot of bruises. She let the cold water run over her head and shoulders, enjoying the water cold or not. There was shampoo, conditioner and soap left in the shower leaving her to wonder if these people took anything when they left.

As she washed her hair and body Marian's thoughts drifted back to the morning. What the hell had happened. She wasn't easy or a slut, but she'd let Merle fuck her stupid not once but twice. She had only had sex with two guys before, both she'd been in relationships with, and that had been several years back. She'd never been with anyone as well-endowed as Merle and damn that had been mind blowing. However, she wasn't sure if she should act like nothing had happened, or what he would expect from her. She didn't expect him to change and figured he'd been with more women than she had fingers and toes. As she started to shiver in the water she knew it time to face the music and see what there was to see. She decided that she'd follow Merle's lead, if he wanted to talk about it, she would – if not, well then that would be fine too.

Marian found a towel and dried her body as best she could then tried to wrap it up around her head and cried out in pain. Suddenly, the door burst open. "Y'all right woman? I heard you." Marian stood slowly with tears in her eyes, "I tried to wrap my hair up and raising my arms hurt more than I expected. " She looked down, blushing as she was still naked, "Did you find any clothes?"

He nodded, "left 'em on the bed. Oughta let me wrap ya ribs back up too, come on darlin." He walked out of the bathroom and thought to himself, where the fuck did darlin come from? Ah well she probably liked shit like that, all women did, right? Not that Marian was like any other woman he'd met. She didn't bitch or moan and she was apparently pretty good at takin care of him, which he had to admit was kinda nice. If they was travelin together anyway. He wondered if she thought he'd get all romantic or some shit, and he fuckin hoped not. He knew he'd get pissy like a little girl if she stopped let him fuck her, but wasn't like he was gonna bring her flowers or shit like that. His thoughts stopped as he noticed her limping into the room. "Why ya limpin? Somethin sides your ribs hurt?" He found himself leading her to the bed.

Marian shook her head and blushed, "No, nothing like that. Just… well… I've never been with anyone big as you and I'm kind of sore. Not that I mind." She added the last quietly.

Merle chuckled, leaned over and kissed her. When he licked her bottom lip she opened her mouth and kissed him back. A minute or so later Merle stood up in front of her and saw her eyes had gone glassy with passion causing a deeply satisfied male laugh to escape him. "Well I can't say I'm sorry bout that Sugar. Now let's see to them ribs." He wrapped them and wound up finding her a different shirt since neither the tank nor the shirt wasn't comfortable over her ribs, but the jeans fit her like a second skin and Merle was happier than hell to watch her walk away from him.

The next couple of weeks gained a gentle rhythm. Merle found a grocery store, not far from the house they were in, that hadn't been completely picked clean. It was a bitch because of the number of walkers, but he'd gotten enough food to last the two of them a while. And he was able to get quite a bit from the surrounding houses. On the way back from another successful scavenge the truck unexpectedly stopped working as he pulled it into the garage. When he wasn't out trying to find supplies or looking for any sign of his brother he worked on the truck and managed to make himself a cuff for his stump that he could affix a knife to. He didn't know what Marian did all day, but she kept him fed, kept their clothes clean, and put together packs of supplies with what he brought back. Every night, and most mornings they found themselves tangled in each other and he found he couldn't keep his hands off of her. As Marian's ribs healed they played around more, and during the evenings they got to know each other while playing cards or just talking.

As the end of their second week in the house Marian said, "I think we should get out of here soon. I've got a bad feeling and well I figure you gotta be itching to get out of here and start searching for your brother further out… you don't mind me coming with you do ya?" She had started of the statement strong, but nearly whispered the last bit afraid Merle wouldn't want her around and she wasn't sure she wanted to be without him anymore.

He tilted his head and looked at her carefully. Then he sighed and ran his hands through his short hair, "Look, I'm only gonna say this shit once alright Sugar? Of course you're comin with me. We're sticking together from her on out, so don't go torturing your damn self thinkin I don't want you around, cause I do. Now stop picking at'cha food and eat, I got plans for you later." It wasn't a declaration of love, but for Marian it would more than do.

Please let me know what you think... where do you see this going? Should I keep it going? My muse requires reviews like nourishment so please help me out.


	6. Chapter 6

**I thought about stopping with the last chapter, but decided I wanted to see where my muse could take me...**

It took Merle two days to feel that the truck was truly ready to go. He'd gotten the tank filled, and had enough gas in the back end to get them at least a couple more tanks of gas further out. He understood Marian's worry; he felt like they needed to get the hell out of the city, far out of it, out of the god damned suburbs, too. He'd found them enough food to feed them for a short while, and Marian had proved herself to be a good enough cook to make damn near anything taste good. Merle could almost feel his mouth watering at what she might do with some fresh game. Though he'd laughed when he found her packing up spices. He sat on the tailgate of the truck and smoked a cigarette remembering that morning.

He had awakened slowly to find the other side of the bed cold. Getting up he told himself to stop being a pussy just cause he didn't get wake up sex. He ambled down the stairs not taking the time to be quiet. He smelled coffee and something else; he wasn't quite sure he believed his nose. He found Marian covering the small grill he'd found to cook on.

Turning with a plate of what looked like ham she smiled, "Morning Merle. The neighbor's house had a freezer set up with a generator, and the freezer had a bunch of meat in it. So I thought maybe I'd cook up as much as I could, package it up and we'd have some protein on the road. Til we find someplace you can hunt anyway."

He narrowed his eyes, "How'd ye know about the neighbor's place? Thought you were leavin shit like that to me?" His voice had gone into a deep growl at the idea that she'd gone out without him.

Marian poured him a cup of coffee, speared some ham and put it on a plate then produced what looked like biscuits. "I've been up since before dawn, couldn't sleep so I thought I'd do some reconnaissance. I'm a big girl and I took my knife. Didn't see any dead; no need to worry."

She started to sit down when Merle grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down to his knee. "Ya maybe grown, but y'ain't a big girl. Gettin skinnier every damn day and ya best stop that shit and eat. I like ya soft, and I don't like ya goin out if I don't know where ya goin. You fuckin' know that." He couldn't stop the thoughts from continuing in his head, _what if something had happened? I wouldn'ta known shit till I went lookin. Can't do shit like that woman, I ain't got the time to be worryin bout'cha_. However, he'd never say that aloud, he was enough of a pussy for even thinking it.

Marian huffed. "I'm not skinny Merle, never been, ain't likely to be any time soon. I eat when I'm hungry and you need the food more than I do. If I go someplace I'll let you know, leave a note or something."

Merle rolled his eyes, for a hot chick she had some serious body issues. "You need to eat to keep your strength up too Missy. Don't give me shit about it neither. When we got here those pants fit y'ass a damn site tighter than they do now. So don't tell me the shit I see ain't how it is. I ain't arguing about it no more, don't fucking call yourself fat. A note'll do, but it'd be fuckin better if you just wait for my ass to get up. I'll go and do the dangerous shit. Got my ass used to your good cooking." He looked over and saw a box filled with stuff on the counter. "What's all that shit?"

Marian smiled and tried to stand up, but apparently Merle wasn't done hanging on to her yet. "I packed up some herbs and spices, some of it for cooking - some for making medicine. I know a bit about herbs and there's some stuff there I can use. Need to pick up some oils and vodka to get it all done right though." She turned her head an noticed that in the few minutes he'd had her on his knee he'd finished the plate of food she'd made up for him.

He wiped his mouth on his arm and said, "No shit, you can make medicine?" Marian nodded and tried to get up again. "Nope, ain't done with you yet."

She moaned a little and put up a little struggle, "I have things to get done before we leave."

Merle nipped her shoulder and said, "Yeah, me too." With that he slid his hand right down her pants to note she didn't have panties on. He pushed his finger right to her clit, exactly where he wanted it and said, "I like knowing I can pull these jeans down and fuck ya if I want."

Marian rolled her head against his shoulder and whimpered, "oh god… I thought you wanted to get out of here."

Merle nodded, pushed his plate to the side of the table and stood up bending her over the table, holding her down with his body. "We'll still get outta here, but I didn't get what I wanted this mornin, and so I'm making up for it. And I'll settle for ya callin me Merle" He rubbed her a little harder till he felt her start to shake, then he pushed the pants down over her hips, pulled himself out and fucked her slow and steady like he had nothing better to do.

When they had both come; her moaning his name and him growling, he pulled her pants up, smacked her ass, fixed himself back into his pants, and turned her head to kiss her thoroughly. "Didn't take no time outta our schedule; I find out you went searching when it's not full light AND you don't tell me what'cha up to, I will tan your ass. Hear me?"

Marian had just come back to herself and she nodded. "Aye, aye cap'n" she muttered and gave him a salute. "All you have to do is withhold sex and I might just do what you want." She winked as she moved away from him to finish packing up the kitchen.

Merle burst out laughing, "I ain't withholding shit, I like fuckin' too much for that. Sides, ain't that some shit women do?"

Marian smiled and replied, "I suppose, but I'm pretty sure women would give a lot to get you in the mood sweetheart." Then she changed gears as though she hadn't just called him by a pet name, "did you get enough to eat? I'm gonna pack the rest up so we can have it on the road."

Merle narrowed his eyes, "I got plenty, but ain't doin shit till I see you eat somethin. A piece of ham'll do if that's all ya can choke down, but ya gotta fuckin eat. I know ya been up workin for hours." Marian picked up a piece of ham and ate it quickly, then grabbed a second showed it to Merle and started nibbling on it as she packed up the rest of the food. He nodded before getting up and doing a thorough search of the house to confirm there was nothing left they wanted.

It had been a very good morning.

Merle stubbed his cigarette out on the floor and sat back down. He'd showered while she was finishing up the last of the packing and she was showering before they took off. He'd thought about joining her but he knew they'd not get out if he did. As he looked around and saw the sun had past the mid-day point. He didn't know if they'd find someplace safe before nightfall. He briefly wondered if they ought not wait till the following morning and leave as the sun came up.

Before that could become more than a passing thought, he heard gunfire. Automatically dropping to a crouch below the tailgate, he slowly made his way to the front of the garage, gun out, scanning the horizon. Just a piece down the road he saw two men with what looked like heavy artillery. The fucking morons were ringing the damned dinner bell. He watched as one of them shot another walker then go into a house about 4 down from where he sat. He muttered, "fuck" while looking at the loaded truck.

Just then Marian stepped out of the house and started to say something but noticed Merle's position and moved into the shadows. "Is it the dead?" she whispered. When he shook his head the blood drained from her face. He looked over at her and stood up shaking his head. "Damn girl, ain't got a lotta faith in me, eh?" He nudged her hoping to pull her out of the fear and panic that seemed to move over her face.

She shook her head and sputtered, "You know that's not true Merle, as far as I can tell you are a damned super hero. Think if we just close the garage door it'll be ok?"

He could hear her voice shaking so he went over and pulled the garage door down. Closing them in. In a quiet voice he said, "I'm pullin' the spark plugs, cover the back end with a tarp and then whatever trash you can find. We'll go back in, go upstairs and hopefully they'll just skip this place."

The two of them worked silently for about 10 minutes first making certain the truck wouldn't start, then making it look like it was filled with trash. Then they grabbed a pack each and went back inside the house. The sun was surprisingly lower in the west then Merle had expected. "Not a bad deal to stay one more night, wouldn'ta gotten fore before dark anyway." He sat down on a couch in the room they'd been sleeping in and twitched the curtain checking for the men he'd seen. Marian sat on the floor next to him watching the window with wide eyes even if she couldn't see out.

They were still out there, and now they weren't alone. There were an additional four men, and all of them were carrying large rifles, and using them like idiots. The dead had been few and far between but with the racket the assholes were making they'd be around soon, then he heard the men talking, "Look lets loot two more then pick one to bed down in. We can leave first thing in the morning." He heard a few guys arguing but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Until one yelled, "why can't we just take the whole fuckin street then we don't have to come back." There was more arguing and then they all trudged back down the street. At that moment he felt Marian release a breath he didn't know she'd been holding.

Marian looked up at Merle, and he sighed when he saw the fear in her eyes. Ever since the incident which had made the leave the clinic he could see fear in her eyes anytime she saw other live folks. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Keep breathin woman, ain't gonna let no one hurt'cha."

She put her forehead on Merle's knee. She had always felt really strong and in control, the incident with the men at the clinic had really shaken her confidence. It might not have been so bad if she'd been able to help herself, but she knew that had Merle not arrived she would have certainly been raped and maybe killed. She took a deep breath and gave thanks for the one handed redneck superhero sitting next to her. He'd ended up being a real surprise over the last few weeks. He complemented her cooking, took care of all of the scavenging and had helped her heal up and stay limber. He also promised to teach her to shoot as soon as they found a decent supply of ammo. "I don't know what I'd do without you Merle."

The man in question chuckled and put his hand on her neck, "I reckon you'd probably be back at the clinic tryin to figure out where to get supplies in the dead run city, or worse. But that ain't no thang, cause you was smart enough to save my ass so quit your gratitude shit and hustle over to that bed, ya been up since fore dawn. I'm gonna sit watch till I'm sure ain't no one I'ma have to kill before breakfast."

Please review it's like nourishment for the muses... and I really love and need to hear your thoughts.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: This chapter has some discussion of horrible and wretched things like rape and murder. It's also a little shorter than my usual, but it felt like the right place to end the chapter.

I don't own any of the marvelous TWD characters, only Marian is mine.

Ch. 7

Marian woke up a few hours later, she was only a little surprised at how well she'd slept, so long as Merle was near she seemed to sleep just fine, even though she'd had insomnia most of her life. She sat up and stretched grateful that her ribs only ached a little. Looking around the room she noticed Merle was not there.

She stood up and pulled her boots on then opened the door to head to the bathroom. However, as soon as the door was open she heard voices. A gruff male voice said, "This place looks pretty cleaned out, let's get back." Someone else replied, "what's your fuckin problem ain't looked through the whole damn place yet. Get your ass upstairs and check the bedrooms, if we're really fucking lucky another dumb whore has locked herself in a bedroom."

Those words were far too close to the truth and for a split second Marian froze, going back to the bedroom would leave her exactly where they expected so she darted for the bathroom and as soon as she got there she was pulled inside and a hand was placed over her mouth. Before she could scream or start to struggle she heard Merle's voice in her ear. "Fuckers just broke down the door, ain't looked in the garage yet. Now if I take my hand away from ya mouth y'ain't gonna scream or nothing, right?" Marian nodded and Merle took his hand away.

She spun around and put her forehead on his chest, her hands on his slim hips, but she didn't say anything till, "fuck, I think I left my knife in the bedroom."

Merle shook his head, "shoulda kept it with ya woman, ain't nothin we can do now. Let's step into the shower, close the curtain maybe they'll take off, if not we take'em down." He didn't wait for her response but simply picked her up and stepped into the bathtub with her. He sat down; sinking low in the tub he readied his gun against the side and pulled her tight against him. She was straddling him, with her head on his chest. His heartbeat was slow and steady as though nothing in the world could bother him. Marian took the time she was waiting with him to calm herself, using his heartbeat against her ear she set her breathing in time with his and let herself calm.

Merle looked down at the woman in his arms and realized she was using him to calm her panic at the situation. With a smirk he pulled his extra knife from his boot and slid it into her hand. She took it and looked up at him with a voiceless thanks. He had considered the fact that he might have just talked to the men or maybe killed them if they were a problem, but he didn't want them to fuck with Marian – _damnit I'm turning into a fuckin pussy for this woman_, he thought. His thoughts stilled and focused as the door opened and a man stepped inside.

Because of the curtains and their position the man couldn't see them, but Merle had no idea how tall he was or what he looked like. He pointed the gun, having released the safety and cocked it before the man came in. Before he was forced to shoot, the man yelled from the doorway, "Everything looks pretty empty up here; can we fuckin get back now? I want a chance at that little filly we brought back fore she's all used up." Merle wrapped his one arm around his woman instinctively placing it so he could keep her protected as he heard a second man come up the steps.

The second man was taller than the first and his voice was deeper, more menacing, "you think she ain't already? Pretty sure the bitch can't run anymore from the ass fucking the major gave her. We done found three bitches in this neighborhood, stupid cunts thinking they're safe in their gods damned houses. It was almost fun to watch the zombies tear the first bitch up, but we need to find another one cause the little one we got now ain't gonna be useful much longer. She stopped makin any noise and shit and you know how the man hates that. Sides, I'm sure I saw a big, fat bitch wanderin round here the other morning. She looked like she'd be some good god damned fun, something to hang on to and shit. I'm fuckin positive I saw her and she got my dick up; she's got to be in one of these houses. So stop yer whining and keep looking."

With every word the man spoke Marian felt her insides quaking, but she remained absolutely still. The other person in the tub felt rage build with each word the sick fuck said. He thought about just shooting the fuckers, but strategically it was a bad damned idea. He didn't' know what they were packing and he didn't know if they were the only ones in the house so he held back. After another minute of doors opening and closing they heard footsteps tromp down the steps and the continued disgusting conversation of the two men, both of whom seemed to believe that it was their right to hurt and use these women because they found them hiding.

After another couple of minutes they heard the front door slam. Marian let out the breath she was holding and whispered, "how long before we can get to the truck and hightail it out of here, need to find your brother right?" Focusing on anything but the fear of being caught by those men Marian kept her forehead pressed against Merle's shoulder. He held her close and rubbed her back a little feeling proud that she didn't break down or nothin. He could feel her shaking slightly and new she was afraid, but she was still thinking of him first. After a moment he grunted his agreement at the idea of going to find Daryl. Merle was still trying to calm himself down from his rage at the soldiers. He heard them referring to ranks so he thought they must be. He felt Marian sit up and he opened his eyes to watch her. "Y'aright?" He knew it was a stupid question, but at her nod his appreciation at her toughness went up another notch.

Marian nodded, but said nothing and climbed out of the tub. She waited till he was up and ready before she moved to open the door. Merle grabbed her hand, "Let me, don't know if they left any surprises." As it turned out, the men had simply left – after about an hour of waiting he got the truck ready; they opened the garage and started to pull out. At the end of the driveway was a man with some kind of automatic rifle who turned as the truck came towards him. Lucky for the couple in the truck, Merle floored it and hit the man, throwing him into the road before he had a chance to get his finger on the trigger.

Merle pulled away from the suburban complex in a fury of speed. He was still seething, and a part of him wished he could have taken the fuckers out before leaving, but he didn't know how good an idea it was to potentially leave the woman alone while he went on a killing spree. He slammed his hand on the steering wheel realizing he was changing. He'd never have thought about a fuckin woman rather than doing what he wanted. Problem was he figured he was about ready to set the world on fucking fire just at the memory of the soldier's words about the woman next to him. He knew he was pissy and growling but he didn't have it in him to do anything else but be pissed off and drive.

Review please?


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